Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 20

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Into This House We're Born, Into This World We're Thrown

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Everyone made their way back to the rendezvous point as quickly as they were able, exhausted now that the adrenaline-pumping action of battle was over. Those who were used to such things took the chance to get some sleep during the long car ride, while others simply looked out through the car windows into the night.

As each group arrived, Ayaka and Yuuna greeted them in front of the shipping truck that contained their command center. Yuuna congratulated everyone enthusiastically as always while Ayaka greeted them quietly, looking at worriedly and glaring at Mana's bandaged shoulder wound when she climbed out of the car.

Ayaka had watched the monitors closely the entire time, and it only showed her that, surprisingly, she still wanted to be a part of it. A fierce determination had sprung up in her, more strongly than anything she had ever felt before. She wanted to be on their level. She had to be on their level. While Yuuna cheered at every explosion and defeated enemy during the operation, Ayaka had quickly fallen silent, her eyes narrowing in concentration as she watched.

So that was what it meant to feel alive.

Being the daughter of a very rich man who also ran a truly enormous business group, Ayaka had been carefully trained since childhood to speak a certain way, eat a certain way, act a certain way. She was tired of it. She was tired of being the stately Ojou-sama everyone expected her to be. She recalled her old martial arts trainer, who had been fired one day when the family advisors had decided that it wasn't fitting for a young ojou-sama to be tossed around like a ragdoll or trained to hit others like some vulgar common person. She had tried to maintain contact afterward, though someone had found out and she had been punished.

Still…it would be hard, but maybe she could ask Asuna? The girl was obviously capable. Magic intrigued Ayaka as well, but she didn't know where to begin.

She looked down at her hands. After what she had seen and learned since the summer, she could never go back to being nothing more than a rich ojou-sama.

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Max's group was the last to arrive. Max and Jennifer stepped out of the van, followed by Akira, who held back for a moment before following her teacher.

Ayaka woke up Yuuna, and the two congratulated the returning group.

"Nice job Akira! I liked what you did with that big water thing, and—" Yuuna gushed at the other girl when she stepped out of the car.

Ayaka pulled Max aside as he went by. "Are they ok?" she asked in a whisper.

Max nodded. "They're exhausted, they've been sleeping since we left. Setsuna especially, she was hurt pretty badly when the robots attacked Mahora."

The only warning either one of them had of what would happen next was an engine roaring. A slight lightening of the eastern sky as dawn crept closer was enough for Ayaka to get a glimpse of the car speeding toward them. The next thing she knew, Max had shoved her so hard she stumbled backward for a dozen feet or more before falling on her bottom. A terrible, indescribable *THUNK-thunk-thunk* and a pained grunt filled her head as Max rolled up the hood and over the top of the car, finally hitting the ground with another grunt.

Ayaka screamed as the car smashed into one of the vans in the motor pool.

Suddenly, people were swarming around all over the place, and black suited bodyguards approached the car with guns drawn. The driver's door opened and a large man past his prime stepped out, took a look around, and raised his hand. The ring of bodyguards was blown back, and Ayaka had a prime view of the man as his body began to deform, stretching here, shrinking there, growing new appendages and bulking up, all while becoming larger and larger. It couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, but it was so…so grotesque that Ayaka knew it would be at the center of her nightmares for a long time to come.

The man had turned into a dragon, an actual dragon, a living and breathing dragon. She stumbled back, took a glance at Max-sensei, who was on hands and knees with his head hanging, and shut her mouth tight. It was just like before, with the robot on the athletic field. And again, just like before, she was powerless to do anything.

She would not scream again. She wouldn't. But she couldn't do anything to help either. Not yet, not yet.

The others were rushing back now, Negi-sensei and Asuna-san, who was so startled at the sight of the dragon that she dropped her harisen. The others, Konoka-san and Sakurazaki-san, who was leaning heavily on the Konoe heir. Okochi-san, who ran to Max-sensei's side, and Jennifer-san who took one look at her partner and shot a glare at the dragon so chilling that Ayaka felt herself taking a step back without even realizing it.

And now they were all arrayed there, bodyguards, classmates, and teachers alike, facing the dragon as the eastern sky slowly lightened behind them. Even Chisame-san and Yuuna-san were there. All but the stately ojou-sama, who hid off to the side like a coward.

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The dragon cleared its throat with a rumbling sound, and then began to speak. "You, son of the thousand master," it rumbled. "You have ruined my last chance to write my name in history. None of you will survive to see the sunrise."

"What are you talking about? Who are you?" Negi demanded of the dragon.

"Need I name myself for a child?" the dragon asked rhetorically. "Very well. My name is Gaze," it said as it shook itself and stretched.

Takahata's eyes narrowed. "Be careful Negi, he was a member of the group your father defeated twenty years ago." Quiet murmuring followed this announcement.

"You fought my father…?"

"Yes. He was a brilliant fighter, not that it won him anything but torment," the dragon replied. It cocked its head to the side and scanned over the group. "This is what I face…interesting," it said, its voice rumbling.

'That is the Konoe girl, unless I miss my guess,' Gaze thought to himself. Yes, and there was the girl from the Crow Tribe, there was the golem maker and the mind reader and the medium…he recognized many faces from his files. He spotted a girl with long red hair and gave her a long, searching look until she started backing away in spite of her best efforts to remain still. "So it is true…" he rumbled. "It is you. No matter."

"What…?" Asuna asked.

He turned to focus his attention on the child teacher. "You, Negi Springfield, have ruined my last chance. Now all that is left, the last thing I can do, is to avenge my masters; both those who fell to your father, and those still alive. Prepare yourself, boy. Defeat me if you can."

Ayaka watched what happened next in horror. Her beloved Negi-sensei barely had time to erect a shield before he was engulfed in liquid dragon's fire as the dragon tried to incinerate his main target.

The dragon was pelted with a dozen spells from a dozen mages in an instant, but shook off the attack with a roar and erupted with another blast of dragon's fire as it swept around, trying to catch as many in the flames as it could.

And then a massive fireball impacted the side of the dragon's head, and it turned to face the new threat.

Ayaka watched as Max-sensei limped forward to face the dragon. "So you like to play with fire, do you?!"

"No, Max!" Jennifer yelled nearby.

"Hoo, I thought I had killed you," the dragon said, following immediately with another blast of dragon's fire.

Ayaka thought for sure that Max-sensei would be killed, but he wasted no time and unleashed an enormous blast of elemental fire that met the dragon's fire halfway, and they began a contest of power, one which the teacher must ultimately lose, but which also forced the dragon to focus its attention solely on him.

The others, Ayaka saw Ku Fei-san and Nagase-san and even Yuuna-san among them, seized the opportunity to attack the dragon from the other side while he was distracted. Gaze stopped the stream of dragon's fire and ducked the remnants of the blast from Max-sensei, and swept the cluster of cars with another spray, sending the thirty-odd people hiding there scrambling for cover. Max-sensei was throwing fireballs steadily now and Jennifer-san focused on shielding Max-sensei, Akira-san, and herself, while Asuna-san learned, almost to her great regret, that dragon's fire was not quite magical; only Negi's quick shield saved her from serious harm.

Gaze charged through the cluster of burning cars, tossed the shipping-truck-cum-communications-center aside like a toy in his fury, sending techs and other members of the support team, Misora-san and Cocone-san among them, running for the nearby forest. Others ran to get out of the dragon's line of sight, while Takahata-sensei tried to draw its attention with a heavy dose of Kanka that knocked Gaze off balance. The dragon's tail swept around and sent Max-sensei and Jennifer-san flying in a rain of debris while he swept clawed hands around trying to snatch the humans that were swarming around him.

Throughout all of this, Ayaka found herself clenching her fists, wishing that there was something, anything she could do help.

But she was powerless. She couldn't use magic, she couldn't even fight…she wasn't on a level with Asuna-san anymore. "I'm…I'm weak," she said aloud. Maybe…maybe if she made it through this, maybe she could ask her father to arrange lessons. Her mother would never allow it, but, well, she had to do something; this sense of helplessness was just too terrible.

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Asuna found Negi kneeling behind an overturned car while the dragon rampaged somewhere off to the left. "What do we do, Negi? You've never fought a dragon before, right?"

Negi's face was scrunched up in concentration. "He's an intelligent dragon, so he is even more dangerous than usual."

Takahata scrambled over after a moment and nodded to Negi and Asuna. "Hello Negi-kun, Asuna-kun."

"How do you beat a dragon, Takahata-sensei?" Asuna asked.

"If he were just an animal it would be easy, but this one seems to have the usual protections for a mage, amplified to fit his new appearance," Takahata said thoughtfully. "It's a very high level transformation, but he has to tire eventually. The problem is staying alive until then."

"If Asuna-san were to get close enough to use her magic canceling..." Negi said.

"That would work," Takahata replied thoughtfully. "I will create a distraction for him, seize the opportunity, Asuna-kun, Negi-kun. Try to keep everyone else back until you're ready, if you can." Takahata left them and began working his way around to the other side of the dragon, who was now destroying the rest of the motor pool. Negi used the pactio cards' telepathy function to tell his partners to keep out of reach of the dragon and help the others escape.

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'Chisame-san? Chisame-san, are you all right?'

Chisame blinked a few times and realized her head was pounding. She took a look at her surroundings and saw blinking lights and occasional sparks in the otherwise pitch darkness. "What…"

'Chisame-san! Please answer me.'

"Negi…?" she asked. She remembered now; was in the communications center. It was lying on its side though, and the techs were nowhere to be found. She got to her feet shakily and took out her pactio card. "Negi? Are you there?"

'Thank goodness! I thought you might be hurt, Chisame-san!'

"No…"

'Please get away from the trailer and hide in the woods. Do you see Chachamaru-san anywhere?'

Chisame shook some of the fuzziness from her head and took a good, long look around. And…there was a figure lying in a heap at the far end of the trailer.

'Chisame-san? Is something wrong?'

She just stared at it for a moment. Was it one of the techs? Whoever it was, it wasn't moving.

'Chisame-san, please answer me!'

She picked her way over broken and sparking computer equipment, and caught a glint of silver and long green hair, and stopped in place, one foot in the air. "Chachamaru…?"

There was no movement.

"Chachamaru! Hey, hey, get up," Chisame said as she hurried over to the robot girl. "Chachamaru! Hey!" she said, lightly smacking Chachamaru's cheek.

'What am I doing? She's a robot, not a human. Besides, that doesn't work in anything but movies, anyway,' Chisame scolded herself. She stuffed her pactio card back in her pocket and turned her full attention to Chachamaru

"Hey, Chachamaru, this isn't funny," she said as she pulled the other girl to a seated position. Chachamaru's head lolled to the side lifelessly and Chisame frowned and forced herself to ignore the rising panic. She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to calm down.

'Ok, think, Chisame! She's a robot, not a human. You've seen her sparring with Negi-sensei enough to know she's impact-resistant. Now think, what was she doing before the trailer was knocked over?'

She absently brushed some green hair aside out of Chachamaru's face as she tried to figure out what to do. Chachamaru had been interfacing with the computers at the start of the attack... Chisame had a brief moment of panic at the thought of an electrical surge frying Chachamaru's innards, but brushed it off as unrealistic. Chachamaru herself had told her once about the safety measures installed in her. Pretty much the only thing that could do serious damage to Chachamaru was a computer virus, and that was unlikely in this situation.

'Interfacing...'

Yes, there it was. A cable stretched between one of Chachamaru's fingers to a bank of ports on the side, now the roof, of the trailer. Maybe she was stuck waiting for a response from the broken computers?

Chisame took a chance and unplugged the cable.

There was a response almost immediately as something whirred to life in Chachamaru's chest and she blinked and looked around. "Greetings, Chisame-san."

"Hello, Chachamaru," Chisame said, an absurd sense of gratefulness almost creeping through. She realized she had had the girl's head on her lap after a moment and turned beet red. 'What the hell am I doing?!'

Chachamaru sat up and Chisame shot to her feet and dusted off her clothes. "They're still fighting out there," Chisame said; the sounds of combat outside were pretty intense.

"Yes."

"…we should probably get out of here," Chisame said.

"Yes," Chachamaru replied, still sitting on the ground.

"So…let's go."

Chachamaru remained silent for a moment. "Preliminary scans show severe damage to both anterior and posterior ligaments, as well as a dislocated artificial femur. It appears my legs are not working."

"Oh."

The two sat looking at each other for a moment.

"Well…I can't just leave you sitting here alone, can I?" Chisame asked irritably as she turned a chair right side up and sat down.

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"Konoka-san, look out!"

With a roar of triumph, the dragon flapped its wings and slowly rose into the air.

"Negi! He's got Konoka!" Asuna shouted, pointing.

Sure enough, the dragon clutched the healer in one clawed hand. She didn't seem to be moving. As they watched, a winged form shot up from the ground with a screech. White hair and wings and a long, curved sword glistened in the early morning light.

"That's Setsuna! Hurry Negi, use the card! She's gone crazy, tell her to stop!" Asuna said, realizing Negi was already communicating telepathically.

A blast of energy, probably Takahata's Kanka, blasted the dragon in the side, knocking him from the air and out of Setsuna's path. "I'm going Negi! Come on!" Asuna shouted, already running toward the fallen dragon. Others darted out and started doing whatever they could to hurt or distract the beast through his magic shields.

Another blast knocked the dragon down again as he tried to rise, and then Asuna was there, hacking at the dragon with her sword, canceling his magic barrier and leaving him wide open to attack. He swatted her brutally away just in time to get blasted in the face by Negi's sagitta magica. The sun finally peaked over the distant mountains in the east, temporarily blinding him so he couldn't see what came directly after Negi.

Setsuna streaked in like a rocket, sword at the ready, and drove it deep, ripping through the dragons neck halfway up and leaving it hanging by a thread. She wasted no time and circled again, driving Yuunagi deep into the convulsing dragon's side, ripping him wide open as she zipped past and her classmates watched in horror.

Gaze's headless body flailed around, still holding Konoka, and finally fell to the ground, spasming wildly in its death throes. Gaze's movements slowed as his life's blood leaked out over the pavement and everyone watched warily, lest it be some sort of trick.

Finally all movement stopped, and the dragon's enormous body began to shrink and shrivel, slowly changing back to that of a human. Setsuna, splashed liberally with the dragon's blood, pulled Konoka to her feet and embraced her tightly, drawing startled gasps from some and knowing smiles from others.

People began to emerge from their hiding places and approached to see the outcome of the battle; a ragged cheer went up at the sight of the defeated enemy.

A sudden clapping sprang up from behind Negi, where no one had been moments ago. He whirled around to face the new threat, and was startled to see none other than Fate Averruncus.

"Well done, Negi," the white haired boy said as he stopped ten paces from Negi. Asuna limped up and stood in front of the teacher, sword at the ready even though she had been hurt, perhaps seriously. "Perhaps you are not as green as I thought," Fate continued, ignoring the girl.

"What do you want?" Asuna shouted as she took a threatening step forward.

Fate looked at her, then looked back at Negi; a dismissive glance.

Asuna fumed, but kept her silence.

"You did this, didn't you?" Negi asked. "You made him kidnap everyone and attack us, you made him hurt Asuna-san!"

Fate just looked at him with a bored expression. "No…that was his doing. He and his servants." He raised an arm as if calling someone forward, and five…unusual girls appeared as if from nowhere. "Beat them," he said.

It was quick, and it was brutal. Negi's group, already exhausted from the stress of fighting their way into and out of various criminal bases and then forced to fight a dragon on an hour's worth of sleep, didn't stand a chance. Some put up a much better fight than others, but in the end, they fell as well. Even Takahata, the most experienced of the lot, couldn't weather the storm. It had just been too much after too long.

His ministra arrayed around him, Fate approached Negi and Asuna where they lay in a heap, Asuna protectively draping herself over Negi's form even as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Why did you do this?" Negi asked, pain slurring his words.

Fate looked at where the dead man lay on the pavement some distance away. "He was going to die soon," he said randomly. "Maybe one year, maybe two. I suppose you could call him a friend." Fate fixed Negi with a hard stare. "At least he died fighting. That is more than can be said for a great many others."

"What are you talking about…?"

"You did well, for what it's worth," Fate said suddenly, nudging the boy teacher's hand with the toe of his shoe. He looked around the battlefield thoughtfully. "I extend to you an invitation, Negi. Come to me in the ruins of old Ostia in the other world in six years' time. Show me that you are worthy of being the Thousand Master's son, and I will tell you something interesting."

Something glimmered in Negi's eyes as he turned his head to look at Fate as the boy walked past to rejoin his followers.

"Remember, Negi. Five years. Maybe you can defeat me by then." And with that, the mysterious boy and his ministra teleported away.

When they were finally gone, Ayaka emerged from the forest to the west. She looked around warily for more enemies, but there was no one present but the injured. She pulled out her cell phone and made a call to the organization to send help, then steeled herself and approached Negi-sensei.

Asuna muttered something and gave a half-hearted grin when Ayaka helped her move off of the child teacher.

"Negi-sensei?" she asked hesitantly.

"Six years, he said…" the boy muttered as Ayaka pulled him up to a sitting position. He wobbled a bit and then fell on the girl, who lowered his head to her lap.

'Poor Negi-sensei…he's exhausted,' she thought. There was little she could do to help, but…if she couldn't help in battle, then she could at least give him a lap to lay his head on.

Asuna said something she didn't really hear, but she didn't care. She would get stronger, she had to.

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"You are Captain Slater, correct?"

The military man glanced up from the menu he was looking at. "Yes? How can I help you?"

"Captain Slater, you are hereby under arrest. Anything you say—"

"Bullshit! What'd I do?!" he demanded, pushing the chair back as he rose and reached under his coat. Suddenly he realized he was facing two dozen uniformed officers, all with weapons drawn, and Slater carefully, very carefully let go of the hidden gun holster and raised his hands to show they were empty.

"You have been charged with murder for hire, kidnapping, possession of illegal weaponry, smuggling—"

Carter, old acquaintance of Mana and the 'mercenary' who had ensured Chisame and Madoka's escape, leaned against a nearby wall, looking blankly at the traffic while he listened to the laundry list of charges as the police arrested Captain Slater. The man would go to jail for the rest of his life at least, and many who worked under him would undergo similar punishments. Considering some of the things he had done in other countries, his war crimes and murders and mistreatment of the locals, he would likely face extradition to another country or end up executed. Carter had chased him halfway across the world, after all. He knew the man like the back of his hand.

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When the techs brought Chachamaru to the robotics lab for her post-mission checkup, she was greeted by an ecstatic Hakase.

"Listen, listen, Chachamaru! How would you like to be a big sister?"

"A big sister, Hakase?"

The girl turned around and waved to someone hiding behind a wall. "Come on, come over here, she won't bite you."

Chachamaru's eyes widened 2.4 millimeters as another gynoid stepped hesitantly around the corner and looked at the floor, knotting the front of her skirt shyly.

"Well go on, introduce yourself," Hakase said.

"H-hello, I am Rally Wheeler," she said in perfect Japanese, eyes looking everywhere but at Chachamaru. "I-I am…can I call you onee-chan?"

"Isn't she cute? She's so shy! I don't know how this 'Doctor Wheeler' managed to pull it off, but I was able to work her programming over sufficiently to run on a new, slightly younger 'heavy artillery' body I had been working on for you," Hakase explained as she looked over the damage to Chachamaru's legs.

"Her hair is pink," Chachamaru said.

"Of course, I didn't think it would be a good idea to have her seem like a replacement or a clone of you, Chachamaru."

Somehow, the gynoid was a bit relieved at that. She looked back at the young robot before her. "Greetings, I am Karakuri Chachamaru. You may call me onee-chan."

"Thank you, onee-chan," Rally mumbled.

"Apparently, she's named after the programmer's deceased daughter's nickname. Pretty strange, isn't it? Anyway, since that's how she identifies herself, I thought it would be for the best if we continued with that. Isn't that right, Rally-chan?"

The pink haired robot nodded.

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Author's Note: Finally, chapter 20, sorry about the delay. I had to rewrite this chapter several times, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. Anyway here you go, I hope you enjoy. The next chapter ends this part of the story, but Still Waters 3 is looming on the horizon.